Masculinity involves traits such as leadership ability, aggression, dominance, risk-taking, independence, strong personality, and a willingness to take a stand. Feminine traits include being affectionate, understanding, sympathetic, compassionate, and sensitive to the needs of others. Health is related to one’s masculinity and femininity in numerous ways as suggested below.

* The extent to which males are socialized toward greater femininity appears to lead to a heightened sense of awareness and concern about health compromising circumstances. In general, females have more of a heightened sense of awareness than males.

* High levels of both masculinity and femininity are associated with higher levels of optimal mental health.

* Deaths from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) are significantly lower among men with high femininity scores.

* In early middle age, higher masculinity scores among both men and women are associated with fewer suicidal thoughts.

* For women who are 70+ years of age, stronger feminine identities almost double the chances of being a smoker among women. This can be traced to how cigarettes were marketed to females in the 1940s and 1950s.

* In both men and women, a high masculinity score is associated with fewer health symptoms. The opposite is true for a high femininity score.

* Health behaviors, such as risk taking activities, used in daily interactions in the social structuring of gender, social power, and status, create social practices that undermine men’s health.

As the above examples demonstrate, masculinity and femininity can have positive and negative impacts on an individual’s health. Men’s health can benefit from having more feminine characteristics, but can also potentially decrease the social power and status within a hyper-masculine culture.